Descartes FILL-IN-THE GAPS Exercise

René Descartes was a man who made of his life a quest for certainty, a quest which led him to the discovery of a new approach to knowledge. This method he summarized in his twenty-one RULES FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE mind. In THE PASSIONS OF THE SOUL, Descartes, late in his life, turned his attention to the human emotions; this book is the result of his applications of his rational method to an analysis of the causes, varieties, and significance of emotions. Descartes wrote this study during the winter of 1645-1646; it was not published, however, until a short time before his death in 1650. During his lifetime Descartes’ books had only small sales and were a source of disappointment to their author. But under the prodding of friends and royal patrons, including Queen Christina of Sweden and Princess elizabeth of the palatine, he finally agreed to the publication of this, the last book to appear before his death. Descartes saw mind and body as being completely distinct; he also saw that sense perception requires an interaction of mind and body. He came to believe that the emotions, as well as sense perception, were the result of interaction between the body and the mind. The causes of the emotions, or, as he called them, the passions, were not, he came to believe, solely in the brain but in all parts of the body, insofar as the various parts of the body serve for the production of blood and what he called the animal spirits.

ELENA FRESCO, GAIA DE GIORGI, GIORGIA GUIDO, ANNA TREVISANO